## TELEGRAM TO I. V. STALIN. June 30, 1918

**L E N I N  C O L L E C T I O N**

**OUTLINE OF A REPORT ON THE CURRENT MOMENT
AT THE IV CONFERENCE OF TRADE UNIONS
AND FACTORY COMMITTEES OF MOSCOW¹**
**[June 26-27, 1918]**

**The Food Crisis**
**Hunger and war.**
The bourgeoisie's legacy
Imperialist war, its legacy.
There is still grain in Russia
(disruption of transport /
organization, etc. /
)

**Speculation and monopoly.**
Kulaks and their methods...

**Food detachments.**
**The escalation of civil war**
Yelets versus* Tambov.

**The dictatorship
of the proletariat**
Wille zur Macht**.

**Moscow. Food organization
and working-class power.**
**Factory committees** — committees of the class governing Russia.

**Labor weeks and magnificent harvest.**

¹ V. I. Lenin delivered a report on June 27, 1918 (see *Works*, 4th ed., vol. 27, pp. 421-438).
* — in distinction to
** — will to power.

**1917-1918 YEARS**

## TELEGRAM TO I. V. STALIN
**June 30, 1918**

**Secret**
To Commissar Stalin
Tsaritsyn

Today, June 30, a message was received from Ioffe from Berlin indicating that Kühlmann¹ had a preliminary conversation with Ioffe. From this conversation it is clear that the Germans agree to compel the Turks to cease military operations beyond the Brest frontier, having established for us a precise demarcation line. They promise not to allow the Turks into Baku, but wish to obtain oil. Ioffe replied that we shall strictly adhere to Brest, but are entirely in agreement with the principle of giving in order to receive. Pay the gravest attention to this message and endeavor to transmit it to Shaumyan as quickly as possible, for now there are the most serious chances of holding Baku. We shall of course give a portion of the oil.

Lenin

Printed from telegraph form

¹ Kühlmann, R. — held the post of State Secretary for Foreign Affairs of Germany.

## SKETCH OF AN AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE SUPREME COUNCIL OF THE NATIONAL ECONOMY AND THE COMMISSARIAT
OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY CONCERNING THE CONDITIONS
OF COMMODITY EXCHANGE BETWEEN CITY AND COUNTRYSIDE
**[May-June 1918]**

**Agreement with the Supreme Council of the National Economy and the Commissariat of Trade and Industry.**

Goods are handed over not to individual persons, but to district, village, or other peasant unions under the obligatory condition of the complete predominance of the poor peasantry in such unions.

Goods are handed over in exchange for grain under the condition of payment of 25% of the sum in goods and receipt of grain in the amount of the entire surplus over local consumption.

Organization of the poor peasantry for the systematic and undeviating collection of high one-time levies from the monetary reserves of the peasant bourgeoisie.

(Breakdown:
1 million
farmsteads
at 1,000 rubles
each)

**L E N I N  C O L L E C T I O N**

Dispatch of military detachments to the countryside for collection of the indicated levies and complete suppression of the resistance of the village bourgeoisie.

Take from the quartermaster storehouses.

Publish at least preliminary results of the Food Ministry by October 25, 1917.

Apparatus: Congress of food agents? Moscow regional apparatus...
(25 people on our side; 2,000 on theirs).

2430'i

## LETTER FROM A. A. IOFFE
**July 1, 1918**

Dear Comrade Ioffe!

I am angry with you, to tell the truth, to the extreme. There are few people, everyone is worked to exhaustion, and you arrange such a thing: you write a great deal of business matter in a personal letter to me (the last one, in pencil) and insert a series of personal outbursts, slips, and barbs, etc., against Chicherin ("not a real" m-r* and the like). To Chicherin himself you write: "perspectives in a letter to Lenin."

This is the devil knows what kind of thing!

Of course, Chicherin asks me for the letter, I cannot show it, unwilling to be an instrument of intrigue. The result is damage to the work and damage to relations.

Chicherin is an excellent worker, most conscientious, intelligent, knowledgeable. Such people must be valued. That his weakness is a lack of "command," this is no misfortune. Are there not plenty of people with the opposite weakness in the world!

One can work with Chicherin, work proceeds easily, but even with him one can spoil the work.

You pick at him, but the Commissariat of Foreign Affairs has the right to lodge complaints against you as well, because you do not take it into account, and without the knowledge and permission of the Commissar of Foreign Affairs, diplomats have no right, of course, to take decisive steps.

I hope you will take all measures to eliminate these Mißstände**.

* Apparently: minister.
** — deficiencies.